Bitch Media - pregnancyhttp://bitchmagazine.org/taxonomy/term/8127/0
enBefore You Watch "Orange is the New Black," Here Are 5 Facts To Know about Pregnancy in Prisonhttp://bitchmagazine.org/post/before-you-binge-watch-orange-is-the-new-black-5-facts-you-should-know-about-pregnancy-in-priso
<p><img src="/sites/default/files/u2583/daya_oitnb.jpg" alt="" width="670" height="446" /></p>
<p>Season three of <em><a href="http://bitchmagazine.org/tag/orange-is-the-new-black" target="_blank">Orange is the New Black</a></em> is (almost) here! While creator Jenji Kohan and the whole cast have been pretty tight-lipped about what we can expect this season, which starts streaming on Netflix this Friday, we do know that one of the themes is motherhood. This season, Dayanara Diaz (Dascha Polanco) is going to have her baby while she's still in jail.</p>
<p>Pregnancy behind bars actaully isn't uncommon in the United States. Most of the time, though, people enter prison already pregnant instead of becoming pregnant after they're incarcerated. The latter has happened, though it's usually not the result of a swoon-y romance like Daya and guard John Bennett's relationship. The Bureau of Justice found that <a href="http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/mpp.pdf">nearly three percent</a> of women entering federal prison are pregnant upon arrival. That number jumps to four percent for people in state prisons and five percent for those in local jails. While Jenji Kohan <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/orange-is-new-black-season-797330">has stated</a> that this season will be lighter than the last, real-life pregnancy behind bars isn't fluffy stuff. Here are five things to keep in mind while watching what unfolds with Daya, Bennett, and their baby.</p>
<p><strong>1. Giving birth in shackles and chains is still a reality.</strong></p>
<p>At the end of the second season, Officer Caputo, in his new role as assistant to the warden, threatens to send Daya to a higher-security prison to give birth in shackles and chains. <a href="http://bitchmagazine.org/post/stop-shackling-pregnant-women-in-prison">Shackling</a>, as I've <a href="http://bitchmagazine.org/post/stop-shackling-pregnant-women-in-prison" target="_blank">described in previous articles</a>, is the practice of restraining a person with handcuffs, a waist chain, and ankle cuffs. If you've ever seen old movies of a chain gang, that's what shackling looks like. And yes, this happens to pregnant women too.</p>
<p>Legally speaking, Caputo's threat is an empty one. In 2008, the federal Bureau of Prisons revised its policy to <a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/speakeasy/bureau-prisons-revises-policy-shackling-pregnant-inmates">ban shackling</a> during labor, delivery, and postpartum recovery except under extreme circumstances. In addition, 21 states have legislation limiting or prohibiting shackling during labor. But, as advocates in Massachusetts and New York have found, laws aren't always followed. Reproductive justice advocate and fellow Bitch writer <a href="http://bitchmagazine.org/post/one-more-state-realizes-that-we-need-to-ban-shackling-of-pregnant-women-Massachusetts-prison-law">Rachel Roth</a> recently noted that, in the year since <a href="http://www.plsma.org/critical-current-legislation/healthy-pregnancies/">Massachusetts </a>passed its law, women are <a href="http://www.momsrising.org/blog/%E2%80%9Cthey-just-have-to-make-it-right%E2%80%9D-the-first-year-of-the-massachusetts-law-on-standards-for-pregnant">still shackled</a> on their way to the hospital. The Correctional Association of New York, a prison watchdog group, found that women are <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fs-tMaGFQWs">routinely shackled during pregnancy</a> and, despite the 2009 anti-shackling legislation, during labor, delivery, and postpartum recovery.</p>
<p>So just because shackling is illegal doesn't mean it doesn't happen.</p>
<p><strong>2. Medical care for pregnant people is not good.</strong></p>
<p>Even after prison officials learned about Daya's pregnancy, she doesn't have any appointments with a doctor. Sadly, medical neglect is more common than not behind bars. It may take a pregnant woman several weeks, if not months, before she sees a doctor. Sometimes prison procedures make seeking medical care challenging—<a href="http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/30363-your-pregnancy-may-subject-you-to-even-more-law-enforcement-violence" target="_blank">one pregnant woman recalled having to wait for hours on a narrow bench</a>, which she described as a plank, in a small holding cell before she could see the doctor. She often gave up and forfeited her appointment when the pain and discomfort became too great. Only when she began bleeding was she rushed to the jail's clinic and then to an outside hospital for treatment. In some prisons, there is only&nbsp;<a href="http://www.correctionalassociation.org/press-release/correctional-association-releases-5-year-study-of-reproductive-healthcare-for-women-in-new-york-prisons">one ob-gyn</a> for hundreds of women, meaning long waits and the potential to overlook problems.</p>
<p><strong>3. "Should you be carrying that?"</strong></p>
<p>Once prison administrators learn about Daya's pregnancy, aside from the lack of medical care, they express their concern for her delicate state. "Should you be carrying that?" Caputo asks Daya as she carries a large tray of food from the kitchen to the cafeteria.</p>
<p>In real life, aside from being assigned a bottom bunk and getting a pregnancy snack, most jails and prisons don't give any special treatment for pregnancy. Women may be housed on upper floors and are given the same amount of time to get up and down the stairs as their non-pregnant counterparts. In some prisons, they're not allowed to work certain jobs; in others, they're still assigned heavy manual labor. Even after giving birth, they are expected to continue working their assigned jobs, which can be heavy cleaning (such as buffing floors) with exposure to toxic chemicals.</p>
<p><strong>4. Moms in prison only see their babies for a day or two.</strong></p>
<p>In most jails and prisons, new mothers get to spend 24 to 48 hours with their babies in the hospital. If they're lucky, they get to keep their newborns with them in the same room. In some cases, they're kept in the hospital's prison wing <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/13/mothers-prison-illegal-shackled-while-giving-birth" target="_blank">while the babies go to the hospital nursery</a>, drastically limiting the amount of time the two can spend together.</p>
<p>Once those 24 to 48 hours are up, it's usually time to say good-bye with mom being taken back to the jail or prison and the baby being picked up by family members, friends or, if no one is available to take the baby, foster care.</p>
<p><strong>5. Women who are serving longer terms are often forced to give up their kids.</strong></p>
<p>In 1997, president Bill Clinton signed into law the federal <a href="http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=105_cong_bills&amp;docid=f:h867enr.txt.pdf" target="_blank">Adoption and Safe Families Act</a> (ASFA). Under ASFA, if a child has spent 15 of the past 22 months in foster care, the state must begin procedures to terminate parental rights. This termination means that the parent no longer has any right to know where her child is or to communicate with that child. When ASFA was passed, only Nebraska and New Mexico contained exceptions for incarcerated parents. But in the 48 other states, once the child entered foster care, the clock started ticking. In addition, given the gendered way parenting works in our society, children of incarcerated mothers are five times more likely than children of incarcerated fathers to end up in foster care.</p>
<p>In 2010, New York passed the <a href="http://www.correctionalassociation.org/news/a-fair-chance-for-families-separated-by-prison">ASFA Expanded Discretion bill</a>, which gave family court judges and foster care workers the discretion to <em>not </em>terminate parental rights if a parent was incarcerated or in drug treatment. In 2013, Washington state passed the <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/16312-new-law-gives-parents-behind-bars-in-washington-state-a-way-to-hold-onto-their-children">Children of Incarcerated Parents bill</a>, which allows the courts to delay termination if incarceration is the reason for the child's continued foster care placement.</p>
<p>Given that Daya's mother is in prison alongside her and that Bennett would face his own prison sentence if he 'fesses up to fatherhood, we may see foster care mentioned in this season.&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>Related Reading: <a href="http://bitchmagazine.org/post/what-pennsatucky%E2%80%99s-teeth-tell-us-about-class-in-america" target="_blank">What Pennsatucky's Teeth Tell Us About Class in America</a></em></p>
<p><em><em>Victoria Law is a voracious reader and freelance writer who frequently writes about gender, incarceration, and resistance. She is also the author of&nbsp;</em><a href="http://resistancebehindbars.org/" target="_blank">Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women</a><em>.&nbsp;</em></em></p>
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http://bitchmagazine.org/post/before-you-binge-watch-orange-is-the-new-black-5-facts-you-should-know-about-pregnancy-in-priso#commentsOrange is the New BlackpregnancyprisonTVWed, 10 Jun 2015 22:52:48 +0000Victoria Law31954 at http://bitchmagazine.orgWhat to Say—And What Not to Say—After Someone Has a Miscarriagehttp://bitchmagazine.org/post/what-to-say%E2%80%94and-what-not-to-say%E2%80%94after-someone-has-a-miscarriage
<p><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/300/18271003620_e4743e02c4_o.jpg" alt="" width="671" height="4774" /></p>
<div>Related Reading: <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanalexandertanner/overwhelmed-anxious-and-angry-navigating-postpartum-depressi#.nqZrJakn1" target="_blank">The Struggle of New Moms with Postpartum Depression.</a></div>
<p><em>Dr. Jessica Zucker&nbsp;is a psychologist based in Los Angeles. She has contributed to </em>The New York Times<em>, </em>The Washington Post<em>, and BuzzFeed, among others. You can find her at&nbsp;<a href="http://www.drjessicazucker.com/" target="_blank">www.drjessicazucker.com</a>&nbsp;and on Twitter&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/drzucker" target="_blank">@DrZucker</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>Ryan Alexander-Tanner is&nbsp;a cartoonist and educator based in Portland, Oregon. His comics work is focused on making underrepresented ideas and ideals more accessible. You can find him at&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ohyesverynice.com/" target="_blank">www.ohyesverynice.com</a>&nbsp;and on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/ohyesverynice" target="_blank">@ohyesverynice</a>.</em></p>
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http://bitchmagazine.org/post/what-to-say%E2%80%94and-what-not-to-say%E2%80%94after-someone-has-a-miscarriage#commentscomicsmiscarriagepregnancySocial CommentaryThu, 04 Jun 2015 15:44:30 +0000Jessica Zucker31944 at http://bitchmagazine.orgA Comic About One Woman's Pregnancyhttp://bitchmagazine.org/post/a-comic-about-one-womans-pregnancy
<p>Cartoonist Rebecca Roher drew this beautiful comic for the <a href="http://gutsmagazine.ca/issue4" target="_blank">Moms issue of Canadian feminist magazine <em>GUTS</em></a>. Enjoy.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 60px;"><img src="/sites/default/files/u2583/mom-body-cover-3-full-2.jpg" alt="" width="497" height="690" /></p>
<p style="padding-left: 60px;"><img src="/sites/default/files/u2583/mom-body-p1.jpg" alt="" width="472" height="690" /><img src="/sites/default/files/u2583/mom-body-p2.jpg" alt="" width="472" height="690" /></p>
<p style="padding-left: 60px;"><img src="/sites/default/files/u2583/mom-body-p3-1.jpg" alt="" width="472" height="690" /> <img src="/sites/default/files/u2583/mom-body-p4-1.jpg" alt="" width="472" height="690" /></p>
<p style="padding-left: 60px;"><img src="/sites/default/files/u2583/mom-body-p5.jpg" alt="" width="472" height="690" /><img src="/sites/default/files/u2583/mom-body-p6.jpg" alt="" width="472" height="690" /></p>
<p style="padding-left: 60px;">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="padding-left: 60px;"><img src="/sites/default/files/u2583/mom-body-p7.jpg" alt="" width="472" height="690" /><img src="/sites/default/files/u2583/mom-body-p8.jpg" alt="" width="472" height="690" /></p>
<p style="padding-left: 60px;"><img src="/sites/default/files/u2583/mom-body-p9.jpg" alt="" width="474" height="690" /></p>
<p style="padding-left: 60px;"><img src="/sites/default/files/u2583/mom-body-p10_0.jpg" alt="" width="488" height="690" /><img src="/sites/default/files/u2583/mom-body-p11.jpg" alt="" width="468" height="690" /></p>
<p style="padding-left: 60px;"><img src="/sites/default/files/u2583/mom-body-p12_0.jpg" alt="" width="459" height="690" /></p>
<p style="padding-left: 60px;"><img src="/sites/default/files/u2583/mom-body-p13.jpg" alt="" width="472" height="690" /></p>
<p style="padding-left: 60px;"><img src="/sites/default/files/u2583/mom-body-p14-1.jpg" alt="" width="460" height="690" /><img src="/sites/default/files/u2583/mom-body-p15.jpg" alt="" width="472" height="690" /><img src="/sites/default/files/u2583/mom-body-p16.jpg" alt="" width="473" height="690" /><img src="/sites/default/files/u2583/mom-body-p17.jpg" alt="" width="455" height="690" /><img src="/sites/default/files/u2583/mom-body-p18.jpg" alt="" width="468" height="690" /></p>
<p style="padding-left: 60px;"><img src="/sites/default/files/u2583/mom-body-p19.jpg" alt="" width="526" height="690" /> <img src="/sites/default/files/u2583/mom-body-p20.jpg" alt="" width="472" height="690" /><img src="/sites/default/files/u2583/mom-body-p21.jpg" alt="" width="472" height="690" /></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="padding-left: 60px;"><img src="/sites/default/files/u2583/mom-body-p22.jpg" alt="" width="472" height="690" /></p>
<p style="padding-left: 60px;"><img src="/sites/default/files/u2583/mom-body-p23.jpg" alt="" width="472" height="690" /></p>
<p style="padding-left: 90px;"><img src="/sites/default/files/u2583/mom-body-p24.jpg" alt="" width="436" height="663" /></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>Related Reading: <a href="http://bitchmagazine.org/post/its-a-problem-when-laws-protect-fetuses%E2%80%94but-not-pregnant-women" target="_blank">It's a Problem When Laws Protect Fetuses, but Not Pregnant Women.</a></em></p>
<p><em>Rebecca Roher is a Canadian illustrator, cartoonist and educator.&nbsp;Her illustration and comics work can be found in publications such as&nbsp;The Nib,&nbsp;Maple Key Comics,&nbsp;Seven Days,&nbsp;The Dominion,&nbsp;and GUTS. She is currently based in White River Junction, Vermont at the Centre for Cartoon Studies.&nbsp;Find more of her work at&nbsp;<a href="http://www.rebeccaroher.com/" target="_blank">www.rebeccaroher.com</a>.</em></p>
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http://bitchmagazine.org/post/a-comic-about-one-womans-pregnancy#commentsmotherhoodpregnancysexComicsFri, 15 May 2015 19:55:10 +0000Rebecca Roher31716 at http://bitchmagazine.orgPregnant Workers Shouldn't Have to Fight for Their Rights—But They Dohttp://bitchmagazine.org/post/workers-rights-breastfeeding-pregnant-workers-fairness-act
<p class="p1"><img src="https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1088/1380560206_c07c185f31_o.jpg" alt="" width="670" height="420" /></p>
<p class="p1"><em>In the workplace, pregnancy should be seen as normal—not as a burden to an employer. Photo via <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/heideroos/1380560206/sizes/o/" target="_blank">Creative Commons</a>.</em></p>
<p class="p1">Parents in the workplace certainly get mixed messages about their legal rights. This winter, courts ruled that a Fortune 100 company can legally discriminate against an employee for needing to pump her breast milk and can bully her into resigning on her first day back from maternity leave.&nbsp; On the other hand, last month the Supreme Court ruled that major company must make reasonable efforts to accommodate a pregnant woman whose doctor told her not to lift more than 20 pounds. This last case is a small victory that may be hard to understand or apply. One thing is clear, though: American workers are treated as costs, not as people with ordinary needs and families. Workers who gestate, give birth to, and nurse infants are treated as a disruptions to the workforce.</p>
<p class="p1">Outright job discrimination against pregnant women has only been illegal since <a href="http://jurist.org/feature/2014/12/background-for-pda.php" target="_blank">1978</a>. That’s the year Congress <a href="http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/publications/fs-preg.cfm" target="_blank">amended Title VII of the Civil Rights Act</a> with the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, making explicitly clear that it’s illegal to refuse to hire women because of pregnancy or pregnancy-related conditions. Mandatory unpaid maternity leaves were legal until <a href="http://law.jrank.org/pages/24553/Cleveland-Board-Education-v-LaFleur-Mandatory-Maternity-Leave.html" target="_blank">1974</a>. But more than 35 years after the Pregnancy Discrimination Act was passed, the <a href="http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/pregnancy_fact_sheet_litigation.cfm" target="_blank">Equal Opportunity Employment Commission enforcement records</a> show that some employers still don’t know that openly refusing to hire a woman because of pregnancy (or terminating her for becoming pregnant) is illegal. And, of course, we’re the <a href="http://fortune.com/2014/05/15/america-comes-in-last-place-on-paid-maternity-leave/" target="_blank">only industrialized country in the world</a> that doesn’t have universal paid maternity leave.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p1"><img src="/sites/default/files/u2583/mapping-paid-maternity-leave-usa-maternity-leave-537x403.jpg" alt="a map of paid maternity leave around the world" width="670" height="440" /></p>
<p class="p1" style="padding-left: 210px;"><em>Maternity leave map by <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/05/24/489973/paid-maternity-leave-us/" target="_blank">ThinkProgress</a>.</em></p>
<p class="p1">Two recent national cases dealing with pregnant and nursing women show the challenges new and aspiring parents face in the workplace. Let’s start with the better news. On March 25, 2015 the Supreme Court decided a case called <em>Young v. UPS</em>, and held that UPS worker Peggy Young had a right to sue her employer for not accommodating a pregnancy-related medical condition. In 2006, Peggy Young was a driver for UPS. Her job description required lifting boxes that weighed up to 70 pounds. Because of her history of miscarriage, her doctor gave her a 20 lb. weight-lifting restriction during her pregnancy. She requested a light duty accommodation on the job. UPS only made accommodations for <a href="https://verdict.justia.com/2015/03/31/forceps-delivery-the-supreme-court-narrowly-saves-the-pregnancy-discrimination-act-in-young-v-ups" target="_blank">three large groups of employees</a>: people injured on the job, people eligible for an accommodation under the ADA, and people who had lost their commercial driver’s licenses due to a medical condition or a legal condition such as a drunk driving conviction. Instead of accommodating her request, UPS placed Young on unpaid leave. This is especially irksome because Young drove for the UPS service that primarily delivered letters and light overnight packages, so she rarely if ever had to lift significant amounts of weight. Still, UPS decided to&nbsp; make her go without pay rather than accommodating her.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p1">The dispute over whether or not UPS had to accommodate Young centered around whether their policy was “pregnancy neutral” and therefore in compliance with the law. In other words, a company could decline to accommodate some or all pregnant employees, as long as they did not explicitly carve out pregnancy as a condition they did not accommodate. After the lower courts dismissed Young’s suit, the Supreme Court sent it back to give Young another bite at the apple: UPS had to show not just that their policy was “neutral” but that pregnant employees were not treated differently from employees who were similar in their need for light duty. She gets to go back to the lower court, nine years after UPS forced her to go on unpaid leave, and go to trial. As a practical matter, the case will almost certainly settle, but what this means in the future is that women have a right to argue their cases, but still no definitive standard for how employers must treat them. Instead, the law puts limitations associated with pregnancy in with all limitations and requires that employers simply treat them equally well or equally badly. Nonetheless, Young made a difference for future UPS employees: <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2014/10/29/with-supreme-court-case-pending-ups-reverses-policy-on-pregnant-workers/" target="_blank">UPS changed its policies</a> before the decision came out even though in court the company stood by its right to discriminate.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p1"><img src="/sites/default/files/u2583/standwithpeggy.jpg" alt="protesters rally in support of peggy young" width="670" height="440" /></p>
<p class="p1"><em>The National Partnership for Women and Families rallied in support of Young v. UPS at the Supreme Court this winter. Photo credit:&nbsp;Jeffrey Martin&nbsp;via the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/nationalpartnership/photos/pb.8924408197.-2207520000.1429561519./10152626193558198/?type=3&amp;src=https%3A%2F%2Fscontent-sea.xx.fbcdn.net%2Fhphotos-xaf1%2Ft31.0-8%2F10842038_10152626193558198_1409716692709782138_o.jpg&amp;smallsrc=https%3A%2F%2Fscontent-sea.xx.fbcdn.net%2Fhphotos-xap1%2Fv%2Ft1.0-9%2F10392592_10152626193558198_1409716692709782138_n.jpg%3Foh%3D509cb62d59965c12b821482dce26bfcc%26oe%3D55E5596C&amp;size=2048%2C1772&amp;fbid=10152626193558198" target="_blank">National Partnership Facebook page.</a>&nbsp;</em></p>
<p class="p1"><em>Meanwhile, over at Nationwide Insurance in Iowa, Angela Ames </em><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/motherwoman/does-a-reasonable-worker_b_6776822.html" target="_blank">gave birth in May 2010</a> and returned to work just over two months later in July 2010. Her immediate supervisor had a history of making disparaging remarks about Ames’ pregnancy and her planned pregnancy leave. On her first day back to work, Ames needed to express breast-milk—but her coworkers told her there was a three-day waiting period to gain access to the company’s lactation room. Anyone with the most basic biological understanding of lactation would know that is physically impossible. Rather than making an exception for Ames, the nurse offered her the “sick room,” which was occupied. Ames’ supervisor, having twice said providing lactation space was not her responsibility, dictated a resignation letter to Ames and told her to “go home to her babies.”</p>
<p class="p1">Ames sued Nationwide. The trial court decided she did not have enough of a case to go to a jury because she couldn’t show that she had been “constructively discharged”—fired by being forced to quit. The court expected that a woman with painfully engorged breasts, on her first day back at work, and who was being actively disparaged by a direct superior, should have gone to HR and protested her treatment instead of “resigning” on the spot. Ms. Ames appealed her case and in March 2014, <a href="http://www.bna.com/eighth-circuit-dismisses-bias-claims-of-worker-told-to-go-be-with-her-babies/" target="_blank">the Federal Appeals Court agreed</a> with the lower court. In January 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear her case, <a href="http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2015/02/11/supreme-court-didnt-reject-breastfeeding-rights-lawsuit-men-can-lactate/" target="_blank">letting the 8th Circuit’s decision stand</a>. This means that until the laws we currently have to protect against this kind of discrimination are made clearer and stronger, every case brought by a nursing mother alleging unreasonable burdens on her right to express milk to feed her baby is going to be a harder battle to fight.</p>
<p class="p1">There is a gap in the <em>Ames</em> case that might offer some comfort. For whatever reason, the issue of whether Nationwide violated the <a href="http://www.dol.gov/whd/nursingmothers/faqBTNM.htm" target="_blank">Break Time for Nursing Mothers</a> law wasn’t litigated. The law went into effect in March 2010, just months before Ames returned to work. It requires many (but not all) employers to provide (unpaid) break time and a private, non-bathroom place for employees to express milk when they need to do so. The Nursing Mothers law<em> should</em> protect against exactly the type of treatment Nationwide meted out to Ames. Still, the burden of building better working conditions for moms falls on employees who have to prove discrimination in various ways.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p1">The proposed <a href="http://www.nwlc.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/pregnantworkersfairnessfactsheet_w_bill_number.pdf" target="_blank">Pregnant Workers Fairness Act</a> would plug this hole in the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. It was introduced in Congress in 2013 and is scheduled to be introduced again in <a href="http://www.nwlc.org/our-blog/pregnant-workers-look-congress-strengthen-supreme-court-win" target="_blank">2015</a>. Some states already have similar laws in place. The federal law would require employers to make “reasonable accommodations” for pregnancy and pregnancy-related conditions unless it would be “unduly burdensome” for the employer to do so. It’s this language that illuminates that heart of the problem. The entire legal framework for dealing with the human tendency to reproduce assumes it's a “burden” for <em>employers</em>. Each law passed represents an incremental expansion of protection after a hard fought turf battle over the costs to employers. Employers can and have refused tiny accommodations that make the difference between being unemployed or employed or having a healthy pregnancy or not for pregnant and nursing moms. &nbsp;</p>
<p class="p1">Setting aside the general requirement of compromise in the sausage-making process of passing laws, we are dealing with a fundamentally anti-family, anti-caregiving point of reference for the work place. Requiring women to show that their needs while pregnant are “reasonable” assumes that the default human worker is never pregnant or nursing. Workers affected by pregnancy or nursing are still measured by how closely they can function like someone who is not pregnant. The employers’ right to assign anyone to any task at any time is the natural state of the affairs and everything else has to be justified. Pregnancy and breastfeeding are not the only areas where work culture erases human needs. <a href="http://familyvaluesatwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Carsey2012WhoCaresForSickKids.pdf" target="_blank">Sick leave</a> (or the lack of it) and <a href="http://www.nwlc.org/our-issues/employment/fair-work-schedules" target="_blank">scheduling that is predictable enough</a> to allow for consistent income and child care are problems as well. But pregnancy discrimination in particular highlights the question: Why, in such a rich and technologically advanced society, can’t we create a culture that <em>assumes</em> many people get pregnant, rather than wringing our hands over “accommodating” it?</p>
<p class="p1"><em>Related Reading: <a href="http://bitchmagazine.org/post/its-a-problem-when-laws-protect-fetuses%E2%80%94but-not-pregnant-women" target="_blank">It's a Problem When Laws Protect Fetuses, but not Pregnant Women.</a></em></p>
<p class="p1"><em>Elleanor Chin is a lawyer, writer, mother and spouse. She lives in Portland, Oregon and writes about family and culture at&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ragecreationjoy.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">www.ragecreationjoy.wordpress.com</a><br /></em></p>
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http://bitchmagazine.org/post/workers-rights-breastfeeding-pregnant-workers-fairness-act#commentsfamilylaborpregnancyPoliticsMon, 20 Apr 2015 21:40:04 +0000Elleanor Chin31377 at http://bitchmagazine.orgSentenced to 41 Years in Prison for a Miscarriagehttp://bitchmagazine.org/post/sentenced-to-41-years-in-prison-for-a-miscarriage-purvi-patel-case
<p><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7241/7298841994_6d42c31a81_b.jpg" alt="a reproductive rights rally" width="670" height="440" /></p>
<p style="padding-left: 150px;"><em>A reproductive rights rally in Vancouver, BC. <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/63369864@N00/7298841994/" target="_blank">Photo by Sylvia McFadden</a>.</em></p>
<p>Indiana has finally succeeded in imprisoning a woman for suffering a miscarriage. On Monday, March 30, 2015, <a href="http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2015/03/30/purvi-patel-sentenced-41-years-feticide-neglect-dependent/" target="_blank">Purvi Patel was sentenced to 41 years in prison</a> after being convicted of neglect of a dependent and feticide.</p>
<p>In July 2013, the 33-year-old Patel arrived at an Indiana emergency room. She was bleeding and seeking help. She told hospital staff that she had miscarried. She also told them that she had dumped the fetal remains in the garbage. Hospital workers contacted the police, who searched for these bloody remains. When they found them, they arrested Patel and charged her with "neglect of a dependent."</p>
<p>The following month, the <a href="http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2015/03/30/easy-pregnant-women-put-trial-united-states/">prosecutor added a charge of feticide</a>. These two charges seem like they contradict each other—"neglect of a dependent" assumes that Patel gave birth to a live child whom she then neglected. Feticide, originally intended to criminalize a person's "knowing or intentional termination of another's pregnancy," was twisted around to criminalize Patel for suffering a miscarriage. According to the prosecutor, "a person can be guilty of feticide even if the fetus in question survives, as long as a deliberate attempt was made to 'terminate' the pregnancy 'with an intention other than to produce a live birth or to remove a dead fetus.'"</p>
<p>The state built its case against Patel using her family's conservative Hindu background, in which premarital sex is disapproved of, <a href="http://www.wsbt.com/news/local/text-messages-search-history-allowed-into-evidence-in-feticide-trial/30961088">text messages to a friend</a> saying that she had ordered pills to induce an abortion from a Hong Kong pharmacy and, three days later, a text that said, "Just lost the baby," and some dubious science. That science was the "<a href="http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2014/10/17/report-scientific-test-used-convict-women-el-salvador-anything/">lung float test</a>," in which lungs are placed in a container of water. If the lung floats, the test claims, it proves that its owner had breathed in air and had thus been alive. The test has been deemed unreliable for the past hundred years. In addition, the state's own toxicologist admitted not finding evidence of abortifacients in Patel's system. But science apparently didn’t matter that much in this case. &nbsp;</p>
<p>On February 3, 2015, a jury found her guilty of both charges. The following month, Patel was sentenced to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/01/magazine/purvi-patel-could-be-just-the-beginning.html?src=twr&amp;smid=tw-nytimes" target="_blank">41 years in prison</a>. She is currently appealing her case. In the meantime, she is sitting in jail (and will be transferred to the state's women's prison).</p>
<p>This is not the first time that Indiana has tried a woman under its feticide law. In 2011, Bei Bei Shuai was 33 weeks pregnant when her boyfriend told her that he was married and was leaving her. Shuai attempted to commit suicide by eating rat poison. Friends found her and rushed her to the hospital, where she was given an emergency c-section. The baby died three days later. She was charged with murder and attempted feticide and jailed without bail for one year. Shuai eventually pled guilty to lesser charges and was <a href="http://womensenews.org/story/in-the-courts/130803/bei-bei-shuai-case-exposes-pregnancy-suicide-risk" target="_blank">sentenced</a> to 178 days in jail.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Sentencing someone to prison for a miscarriage seems outrageous—but Indiana's law is part of an increasing number of "fetus rights" laws nationwide. In <a href="http://www.ncsl.org/research/health/fetal-homicide-state-laws.aspx" target="_blank">thirty-eight states</a>, violence against women that results in pregnancy loss is called fetal homicide. But, as demonstrated by Indiana, that law can be—and has been—used to criminalize the women themselves who lose their pregnancies. Lynn Paltrow, executive director of <a href="http://advocatesforpregnantwomen.org/">National Advocates for Pregnant Women</a>, which defends the rights of pregnant and parenting women including Patel and Shuai, noted that six million people are pregnant in the United States each year. That's six million people who could be affected by policies that criminalize certain behaviors while pregnant—or which criminalized pregnancy loss.</p>
<p><img src="/sites/default/files/u2583/feticidemap.jpg" alt="states with fetal homicide laws" width="670" height="570" /></p>
<p style="padding-left: 120px;"><em>Map credit: <a href="http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-03-13/indiana-jury-says-purvi-patel-should-go-prison-what-she-says-was-miscarriage" target="_blank">PRI</a>, with data from the <a href="http://www.ncsl.org/research/health/fetal-homicide-state-laws.aspx" target="_blank">National Conference of State Legislatures</a>.</em></p>
<p>In recent years, right-wing groups have effectively been pushing for laws that police pregnant women’s bodies—as a way to try and mainstream a rolling back of abortion rights. Between 1973 and 2005, there have been&nbsp;<a href="http://jhppl.dukejournals.org/content/38/2/299.full.pdf+html?sid=b0811f36-d4e4-4b51-a830-e175e6eee40c" target="_blank">over 400 documented cases</a>&nbsp;in which women faced criminal charges related to their pregnancies. Since 2005, there have been at least 200 additional documented cases of prosecutors criminally charging women under so-called fetal harm laws. In some instances, women like African-American teenager&nbsp;<a href="http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2014/04/04/murder-charges-dismissed-mississippi-stillbirth-case/" target="_blank">Rennie Gibbs</a>&nbsp;have faced life in prison after delivering a stillborn baby. In others, like those of&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/24/us/case-explores-rights-of-fetus-versus-mother.html" target="_blank">Alicia Beltran</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/12/16/tamara_loertscher_wisconsin_mother_is_thrown_in_jail_for_refusing_drug_treatment.html" target="_blank">Tamara Loertscher</a>&nbsp;in Wisconsin, the state has appointed a guardian and legal representation for the fetus, but not for the pregnant woman. In one better-known case, <a href="http://advocatesforpregnantwomen.org/blog/2010/06/the_war_on_drugs_coming_to_a_w.php" target="_blank">Cornelia Whitner</a> gave birth to a healthy baby boy but was convicted and imprisoned on charges of "endangering the life of her unborn child" after traces of cocaine were found in the baby's urine. Others, like Regina McKnight who delivered a stillborn baby in 1999, were charged with murder under the state's "homicide by child abuse" law and sentenced to twenty years in prison. (In McKnight's case, the state's supreme court overturned her conviction nine years later, stating that there was not enough proof that cocaine use caused the stillbirth.)</p>
<p>These policies take us back to the years before Roe v. Wade.&nbsp;In a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/467408766744680/" target="_blank">recent panel discussion</a> about the intersection of reproductive justice and prison abolition, Paltrow recounted the case of Shirley Wheeler, who was convicted of manslaughter after having an abortion in 1971. The judge gave her two options—to marry the man who impregnated her or to move back in with her parents. Her conviction was eventually overturned.</p>
<p>As the conviction and imprisonment of Parvi Patel, the trend doesn't seem to be reversing, let alone slowing, any time soon. Paltrow predicts, "This is something we will see more and more of as women have less and less access to abortion."</p>
<p><em>Related Reading: <a href="http://bitchmagazine.org/post/how-pop-culture-reinforces-abortion-stigma%E2%80%94and-can-help-end-it" target="_blank">How Pop Culture Reinforces Abortion Stigma—And Can Help End It.</a></em></p>
<p><em><em>Victoria Law is a voracious reader and freelance writer who frequently writes about gender, incarceration and resistance. She is also the author of&nbsp;</em><a href="http://resistancebehindbars.org/" target="_blank">Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women</a><em>.&nbsp;</em><br /></em></p>
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http://bitchmagazine.org/post/sentenced-to-41-years-in-prison-for-a-miscarriage-purvi-patel-case#commentsabortionpregnancyPurvi Patelreproductive rightsPoliticsThu, 16 Apr 2015 21:18:10 +0000Victoria Law31331 at http://bitchmagazine.orgOn Our Radar: Feminist News Rounduphttp://bitchmagazine.org/post/on-our-radar-feminist-news-roundup-56
<p><em>Here's what's on our radar today!</em></p>
<p>• Check out these&nbsp;<a href="http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20131030/OPINION/310300049/We-must-work-prevent-sexual-violence?gcheck=1" target="_blank">five steps to prevent sexual violence</a>&nbsp;that&nbsp;<em>don’t</em>&nbsp;blame survivors. [Statesman Journal]</p>
<p>• An investigation finds that immigrants in detention centers have&nbsp;<a href="http://inthesetimes.com/article/15806/immigrant_detainees_have_no_plan_b/" target="_blank">no access to emergency contraceptive Plan B</a>. [In These Times] &nbsp;</p>
<p>•&nbsp;<em>Clamor</em>, an out-of-print independent magazine that provided “Your DIY Guide To Everyday Revolution,” is&nbsp;<a href="http://clamormagazine.org/index.php" target="_blank">now available online</a>! They’re also&nbsp;<a href="http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/creating-a-clamor-magazine-digital-archive" target="_blank">raising funds to make the archives more easily accessible</a>. [Clamor and Indiegogo]</p>
<p>•&nbsp;<a href="http://www.autostraddle.com/queer-justice-means-more-than-gay-white-men-having-public-boyfriends-202325/" target="_blank">Discrimination against the queer community didn’t disappear along with DOMA</a>, and the acceptance of affluent, gay white men does not translate to justice for all queer people. [Autostraddle]</p>
<p>• The National Advocates for Pregnant Women is filing t<a href="http://feministing.com/2013/10/24/i-didnt-know-unborn-children-had-lawyers-federal-lawsuit-challenges-fetal-protection-laws/" target="_blank">he first federal lawsuit challenging fetal endangerment laws</a>&nbsp;on behalf of Alicia Beltran, a pregnant Wisconsin woman who was court-ordered into 78-day stay at a drug treatment center to protect her fetus from an addiction she had already ended. [Feministing]</p>
<p>• Feminist small presses are trying to&nbsp;<a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/education-oronte-churm/guest-post-i-dont-read-books-women" target="_blank">bridge the gap in representation for female writers</a>. To see the graphs on just how underrepresented women are in the literary community,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.vidaweb.org/vida-count-2012-mic-check-redux" target="_blank">check out the VIDA count from 2012</a>. [Insider Higher Ed and VIDA]</p>
<p>• 12-year-old Madison Kimrey’s speech on getting back voting pre-registration for teens is nothing short of awesome. You can also read her&nbsp;<a href="http://functionalhumanbeing.blogspot.com/2013/10/fired-up.html" target="_blank">accompanying blog post</a>. [Functional Human Being]</p>
<p><iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/3CRSK0HItoI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p><em>Share what's on your radar in the comments!</em></p>
http://bitchmagazine.org/post/on-our-radar-feminist-news-roundup-56#commentslgbt rightspregnancyvotingwritingNewsThu, 31 Oct 2013 16:21:14 +0000Arielle Yarwood24497 at http://bitchmagazine.orgWe Need to Stop Shackling Pregnant Women in Prison—Now. http://bitchmagazine.org/post/stop-shackling-pregnant-women-in-prison
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<p>Imagine a woman actively in labor. Now, imagine her handcuffed. Attached to those handcuffs is a chain that links her wrists to a chain wrapped around her belly. That belly chain is the same weight as a bicycle chain. Attached to her belly chain is yet another chain that attaches to shackles around her feet.</p>
<p><img style="float: right; margin: 5px;" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7345/10090817966_d83f3a6101_o.jpg" alt="No More Shackles poster" width="300" height="445" /></p>
<p>This is <a href="https://www.aclu.org/maps/state-standards-pregnancy-related-health-care-and-abortion-women-prison-map" target="_blank">commonly known as "shackling"</a> and is a grim reality for many women in the United States.&nbsp; In 32 states, prisons and jails are permitted to shackle incarcerated women during childbirth—even though the American Medical Association says the practice is <a href="http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2010/06/16/opposes-shackling-pregnant-women-labor/" target="_blank">unsafe, "medically hazardous," and "barbaric."</a>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Last week, Washington DC councilmember <a href="http://david-grosso.tumblr.com/post/61601380105" target="_blank">David Grosso introduced a bill</a> that would keep jails from shackling women during any point of their pregnancy and for six weeks after they've given birth.</p>
<p>"I have introduced this legislation because it is an important human rights issue that must be addressed in D.C.," said Grosso.</p>
<p>Washington DC has one of <a href="http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/10/shackling_women_in_prison_during_childbirth.html" target="_blank">only a handful of American jail and prison systems</a> that prohibits shackling during childbirth, but only after&nbsp; incarcerated women filed a class action lawsuit. In 1996, a&nbsp;<a href="http://openjurist.org/93/f3d/910/women-prisoners-of-district-of-columbia-department-of-corrections-v-district-of-columbia" target="_blank">district court ruled in their favor, banning the practice</a>&nbsp;as cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment.&nbsp; The district continues to shackle women during the early parts of pregnancy, though. The new bill would change that.</p>
<p>Although eighteen states have enacted legislation prohibiting shackling during childbirth, only six of those states prohibit shackling people during other points in their pregnancy.</p>
<p>Last year, I worked with&nbsp;<a title="WORTH" href="http://womenontherise-worth.org/" target="_blank">WORTH</a>, an organization of formerly incarcerated women pushing for changes to prison policies and practices, to launch their&nbsp;<a title="Birthing Behind Bars campaign" href="http://nationinside.org/campaign/birthing-behind-bars/" target="_blank">Birthing Behind Bars campaign</a>. The campaign utilizes women's experiences and stories of pregnancy behind bars to further a state-by-state analysis around the intersections of reproductive justice and incarceration.</p>
<p>One of the first women who shared her story with Birthing Behind Bars was&nbsp;<a title="Linda Rosa" href="http://nationinside.org/campaign/birthing-behind-bars/storybank/lindas-story/" target="_blank">Linda Rosa</a>. She learned that she was pregnant with twins after entering jail in 2008. Linda Rosa recalled being shackled each time she was taken to see the doctor: "They used to shackle my hands and my legs. I would have to walk with the shackles on my legs, which would leave cuts on the back of my ankles." Linda had to undergo a C-section and was shackled while recovering in the hospital. She recalled having stitches and staples from her c-section and shackles on her wrists and ankles when she visited her newborn babies in the ICU. "Everywhere I had to go, I had to wear shackles," she said.</p>
<p>When I spoke with her, Linda Rosa was out of prison and living with her twins at Hour Children, an organization that works with incarcerated mothers to keep their children. In speaking with her, it was obvious that Linda Rosa loved her children. Her incarceration did not make her any less a loving mother than any parent who has never set foot in a jail or prison.</p>
<p>Shackling during pregnancy is inhumane and unnecessary. Pregnant women in jails and prisons are more likely to experience miscarriage, preterm birth, low birth weight infants, and potentially fatal conditions like preeclampsia. In addition to being dehumanizing, shackling can increase stress and lead to further complications, as well as render doctors unable to treat women in emergency situations. So why is it so hard to pass laws ensuring this basic health care protection? &nbsp;</p>
<p>It may be that, &nbsp;when we think of prison, we don't think of women in prison, let alone pregnant women in prison.&nbsp;<em><a href="http://bit.ly/1cHYTgn" target="_blank">Orange is the New Black</a></em>&nbsp;is the one mainstream media portrayal that I can easily point to and know that people have at least heard of it. But for the most part, women—and women's issues—continue to be invisible when we think about prison. That means that we don't think about the issues that accompany increasing arrests and incarceration. We don't question narratives of people in prison as scary, threatening, faceless "others" rather than normal people who have done something illegal.</p>
<p>This invisibility also means that we're less likely to question people like Steve Patterson, spokesperson for Chicago's Cook County Sheriff's Department,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128563037" target="_blank">when he argues against anti-shackling protection using scare tactics like</a>, "If you're laying in hospital bed, and in the next hospital bed is a woman who's in on a double murder charge, because she's pregnant she shouldn't be handcuffed to the side of the bed—I think if you're the person laying in bed next to her you might disagree." (Note: imprisoned people do not share hospital rooms with non-incarcerated people.)</p>
<p>Last year, California signed a law&nbsp;<a title="prohibiting the shackling of women at any point during their pregnancy" href="http://nationinside.org/campaign/birthing-behind-bars/posts/no-more-shackles-ab-2530-is-signed/" target="_blank">prohibiting the shackling of women at any point</a> during their pregnancy. Washington DC—and the rest of the country—should follow suit.</p>
<p><em>Image via <a href="http://www.prisonactivist.org/alerts/end-shackling-pregnant-women" target="_blank">PrisonActivist.org</a>.&nbsp;</em></p>
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http://bitchmagazine.org/post/stop-shackling-pregnant-women-in-prison#commentspregnancyprisonPoliticsFri, 04 Oct 2013 22:10:59 +0000Victoria Law24284 at http://bitchmagazine.orgOn Our Radar: Today's Feminist News Roundup http://bitchmagazine.org/post/on-our-radar-todays-feminist-news-roundup-draft-53
<p>Good morning, all! Here's the latest feminist news on our radar...</p>
<p>• The arrest of <a href="http://thefeministwire.com/2013/05/mad-science-or-school-to-prison-criminalizing-black-girls/#.UYLJTI1zpYU.twitter">16-year-old Florida high-school student Kiera Wilmot for conducting what she described as a science experiment</a> on school grounds is a troubling example of what sociologists see as a school-to-prison pipeline too often imposed on black teens. [The Feminist Wire]</p>
<p>• Environmentalist, author, and cancer survivor <a href="http://msmagazine.com/blog/2013/04/30/fracking-as-a-toxic-trespass/">Sandra Steingraber took a stand against the toxic effects of fracking and corporate pollution</a>—and served 15 days in jail for her protest. [Ms.]</p>
<p>• Oversharing is rampant on the Internet, to say nothing of offline. <a href="http://flavorwire.com/388823/in-defense-of-mandy-stadtmiller-why-internet-oversharing-isnt-just-xojanes-problem/">Why are women who do it judged so harshly?</a> [Flavorwire]</p>
<p>• How <a href="http://nymag.com/thecut/2013/05/when-lesbian-athletes-come-out-we-hardly-notice.html?mid=twitter_thecutblog">the garment-factory tragedy in Bangladesh connects to Americans' dependence on fast fashion</a>—and what it will take to change working conditions. [NPR]</p>
<p>• Jason Collins isn't the first gay man to be part of a major professional sports team, so <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/05/actually-jason-collins-isnt-the-first-openly-gay-man-in-a-major-pro-sport/275523/">why not read the fascinating story of Glen Burke, the former Los Angeles Dodger who made no secret of his orientation?</a> Bonus: Burke's story proves that <a href="http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/page/Mag15historyofthehighfive/who-invented-high-five">the high-five—that universal gesture of bro-hood</a>—is so much gayer than anyone knew.</p>
<p>• Pregnancy discrimination is never okay—<a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/05/02/stephanie_stewart_amy_clark_and_others_battle_pregnancy_discrimination_in.html">but when your women's-studies professor is behind it? </a>Talk about insult to injury.&nbsp; [XXfactor]</p>
<p>• The Awl has a <a href="http://www.theawl.com/2013/05/eve-sedgwick-after-death">great celebration of the life and work of queer theorist and literary critic Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick</a>, who would have been 63 yesterday. [The Awl]</p>
<p>• Got a feminist mother in your life? <a href="http://www.vivalafeminista.com/2013/05/feminist-mothers-day-gift-guide.html?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=twitter&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+VivaLaFeminista+%28Viva+La+Feminista%29">Celebrate her on Mother's Day with one of these thoughtful gifts,</a> rather than the chintzy crap being pushed on TV commercials. (Chocolate is always welcome, tho.) [Viva La Feminista]</p>
<p>• Finally, if you love Retta—and if you're a <em>Parks and Recreation</em> fan, you almost definitely do—you'll want to <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/05/01/180083329/To-Avoid-Or-To-Embrace-How-Actors-Navigate-Stereotypes">stop whatever it is you're doing and listen to her talk about race and stereotyping in Hollywood</a>. [NPR]</p>
<p>Got anything to add? If so, you know where it goes!</p>
http://bitchmagazine.org/post/on-our-radar-todays-feminist-news-roundup-draft-53#commentsfrackingJason CollinsKiera WilmotpregnancySandra SteingraberBitch HQFri, 03 May 2013 15:00:38 +0000Andi Zeisler22445 at http://bitchmagazine.orgPopaganda Episode: Pulp, Featuring Chelsea Cain and Laura Lippmanhttp://bitchmagazine.org/post/popaganda-episode-pulp-featuring-chelsea-cain-and-laura-lippman
<p><img src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2554/3695325770_272ded492b.jpg" alt="Popaganda logo" width="500" height="91" /></p>
<p>The best stories are the juicy ones. This episode of our feminist pop culture podcast is all about <strong>pulp </strong>(<a href="/issue/58" target="_blank">timely, right</a>?). We talk with best-selling thriller writer Chelsea Cain about how her pregnancy inspired her to get started writing gory stories and she reads us a horrific short story about a hungry zombie baby. Then, we feature a sneak-peek excerpt from <a href="http://monicanolan.com/" target="_blank">Monica Nolan</a>'s new lesbian erotica pulp, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Maxine-Mainwaring-Lesbian-Dilettante-Monica/dp/0758288298" target="_blank">Maxine Mainwearing: Lesbian Dilettante</a></em>. Finally, we talk with everyone's favorite mystery writer <a href="http://lauralippman.net/" target="_blank">Laura Lippman</a> about love, money, and reality television.&nbsp;</p>
<p>All that, in just 20 minutes. Listen in!&nbsp;</p>
<p><em> </em></p>
<p><em>This episode of Popaganda is sponsored by <a href="http://www.sheboptheshop.com">She Bop!</a></em></p>
<p><em> </em></p>
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<p>Here is the transcript of the show, minus the excerpts of the novels we read aloud:</p>
<blockquote><p>POPAGANDA: PULP EPISODE</p>
<p>Air date: April 17th, 2013</p>
<p>SARAH MIRK:&nbsp; This is Sarah Mirk and this is Popaganda, Bitch Media's feminist response to pop culture podcast.</p>
<p>Thanks to our sponsor, She Bop,&nbsp;a women-owned sex toy boutique that specializes in body safe products and education. Check them out at <a href="http://sheboptheshop.com/">sheboptheshop.com</a>.</p>
<p>[jingle]</p>
<p>Today our whole show is about one genre: Pulp. What is pulp? It's mystery, intrigue, illicit lesbian sex, it's zombie babies. Our show has all of these things. Especially the zombie babies. Today we're talking with bestselling mystery writer Laura Lippman, reading a steamy excerpt from a new queer erotica book by Monica Nolan, and meeting with Chelsea Cain, a genuinely terrifying writer. Stay tuned.&nbsp;</p>
<p>CHELSEA CAIN: My name is Chelsea Cain and I write commercial thrillers about the twisted relationship between a cop named detective Archie Sheridan and the beautiful serial killer Gretchen Lowell&nbsp;</p>
<p>SARAH MIRK: What's the grossest thing you've ever written?</p>
<p>CHELSEA: I have an answer for that, despite the fact that I have 16 books to choose from. [laughs] The thing I'm most proud of in terms of murder-y, is that I have a scene where a character's small intestine is removed with a crochet hook.</p>
<p>SARAH: That's disgusting.&nbsp;</p>
<p>CHELSEA: I thought a lot about this because I don't crochet, so I wanted to make sure I used the right kind of hook. I want verisimilitude. So I called a friend and this was the extent of our conversation. I said, "Mary, it's Chelsea. What kind of crochet hook would I need to remove someone's small intestine?" And she said, "An H." And I said, "Thanks!" and hung up. [laughs]&nbsp;</p>
<p>SARAH: Did this make you suspicious of your friend?</p>
<p>CHELSEA: No, she just knows a lot about crocheting. I think it says something about me that she didn't follow up with me as to why I needed to know this. I think my friends are used to it by now.</p>
<p>SARAH: When was the first time you realized you could write these thrillers? When was the first time that you realized you could get paid to write about removing someone's intestine with a crochet hook?</p>
<p>CHELSEA: When I was pregnant.</p>
<p>SARAH: Really?</p>
<p>CHELSEA: Hormones make some people a little crazy. And I was one of them. I got really—and I've always been a morbid person, it turns out, I didn't realize every kid didn't have a pet cemetery—but I didn't start thinking about writing about violence and horror and gore stuff until I was pregnant.</p>
<p>SARAH: Was it something about being pregnant that made you think about it? Like, your body is changing—</p>
<p>CHELSEA: Yeah, have you ever been pregnant?</p>
<p>SARAH: No! I'm very nervous about that possibility. I've spent my life so far trying to not be pregnant.</p>
<p>CHELSEA: My husband and I, we wanted a kid, but we weren't sure we wanted a baby. We didn't know what we'd do with a baby. So we took a class and the class, it was every week, and they just showed horribly violent childbirth videos. Which is a lot of preparation for pregnancy, they want you to not freak out when it's actually happening, so they show you the worst case scenarios. But we couldn't handle it. We dropped out. But after that, I still started watching all these really gory thrillers on TV and I got into these dark British crime shows. Pregnancy is essentially really violent. And all these books, like <em>What to Expect when You're Expecting,</em> do the same things as the childbirth classes, they take you to this terrible place, they take you over the edge.</p>
<p>SARAH: That's funny, because personally as an un-pregnant person, I think of perceptions of pregnancy as being flowery, feminine, women glowing—</p>
<p>CHELSEA: Lies! That's the TV commercial.</p>
<p>SARAH: —yeah, but then I watched <em>Alien</em> and I'm like, "I'm never getting pregnant."</p>
<p>CHELSEA: It's just like that. I started writing my first thriller <em>Heartsick</em> when I was pregnant with my daughter. I finished it when she was a little baby next to me.</p>
<p>SARAH: So where do you draw inspiration from now? I assume you're not pregnant anymore.&nbsp;</p>
<p>CHELSEA: I seem to have a natural ability to come up with ways to murder people. That comes quite naturally to me. I used to do it in my head, now I can do it on paper. I'm one of those people who, when I go for a walk in the woods, I'm disappointed I don't find a dead body. Because you read about people who find bodies in the woods all the time. I walk in the woods and I've never found a body and I feel that's not fair. I feel I have a talent, this may be my one true literary gifts, for coming up with horrible ways to kill people. And I read forensic pathology ways for the details.&nbsp;</p>
<p>SARAH: So I hear you have an extremely dirty story for us?</p>
<p>CHELSEA: If you like reading about sex or violence, my books are for you. I can go sex or I can go violence. But here, I have a humor story about infanticide.</p>
<p>SARAH: [laughs] That's a phrase I've never heard before. But I'm excited to go there with you.</p>
<p>CHELSEA: This is based on Kipling's <em>Just So Stories</em>.</p>
<p><em>[Chelsea reads her story "</em><em>Why Mothers Let Their Babies Watch Television</em><em>" </em><em>from </em>21<sup>st</sup> Century Dead<em>. </em><em><a href="http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9780312605841-0">Buy the book here</a></em><em>!]</em></p>
<p>SARAH: What a horrific story.</p>
<p>CHELSEA: I was reading a lot of the Just So Stories, which are all sort of allegories but with animals, I was reading a lot of them to my daughter and I loved the rhythm of them and thought, "Wouldn't it be great to have one of these, but about zombies?" [laughs] And then I thought of the idea that zombies are something you can kill and it would come back and my mind just went to infanticide. I know. It's not right. I'm not saying it's right. It's just right.</p>
<p><em>[Next segment is an excerpt from Monica Nolan's new book Maxine Mainwaring: Lesbian Dilettante. <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Maxine-Mainwaring-Lesbian-Dilettante-Monica/dp/0758288298">Buy the book here!]</a></em></p>
<p>SARAH: About a month ago, Bitch's executive director Julie Falk called up one of her favorite writers, Laura Lippman. Laura is a best-selling mystery writer and here she talks about her new work as well as what it's like writing pulp.&nbsp;</p>
<p>LAURA LIPMMAN: As someone who's kind of a goody-goody, a life-long goody-goody, there's a real vicarious thrill in reading pulp fiction.</p>
<p>But what appeals to me about noir is that, first of all, it's personal.&nbsp; Things happen to people generally because—I think I coined this—noir is about dreamers who become schemers.&nbsp; Dreams are pretty universal; everybody wants the pretty girl, more money, etc.&nbsp; Noir novels are about what happens when two people decide they're going to try to get those things no matter what it takes. And they're almost always doomed. But that's sort of the beauty of reading the book. The other thing about them, something that I think is big in crime fiction, in general, and doesn't get as much treatment as it should in literature as a whole, is that pulp tales and noir tales are driven frequently by economics—by money.</p>
<p>&nbsp;Now it is fascinating to me that we live in a culture when money means so much, but it's absent in so much fiction. There are theories about this.&nbsp; One theory is that a lot of fiction was written by people who were literally tenured within an academic system and they didn't think a lot about their paychecks or their survival because they had a security that didn't make that one of their main concerns day in and day out.&nbsp; I think money and love are the two biggest subjects in human nature.&nbsp; Everything's about money and love, right?</p>
<p>JULIE FALK: I feel like I see so much of a critique of pop culture and media in many of your books, and I'm wondering is that just my perspective or is this deliberate? &nbsp;</p>
<p>LAURA: It's deliberate but it also just sort of comes out.&nbsp; I don't even set out and say "I'm going to write about this, this, or this in pop culture," but I do say "I'm going to write about real people and real situations" and pop culture is a part of everything.&nbsp; I'm really interested in it.&nbsp; I have trouble keeping up with it.&nbsp; I think that's just a function of a certain point in your life when you get too tired.&nbsp; In particular, I'm not keeping up with music. I don't think I've really developed any musical taste, hardly, in the past 20 years.&nbsp; That sounds awful but it's truthful. But I'm fascinated by television.&nbsp; The book that I'm currently writing, I turned it in yesterday, has a cop character who's really engaged with cop TV shows in a way that I hope feels new.</p>
<p>The idea is that he likes the shows.&nbsp; He thinks they're a perfectly good way to pass time.&nbsp; He likes them because they don't purport to really show how his job is done. What he can't stand is living in a culture where everybody thinks they know so much about being a cop and in particular he hates to hear his jargon repeated back to him.&nbsp; It's sort of this secret language of his profession.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Now, it's kind of a fine line for me to walk because when I do that people think that I'm writing about <em>The Wire</em>, and I guess on some level I am, but I'm not making fun of <em>The Wire</em>, I'm making fun of certain <em>Wire</em> fans.&nbsp; I'm sorry, I just think its kind of ridiculous for someone who's never worked as a police officer or has been in part of that world to go around talking about dunkers.&nbsp; Or to say "po-po," or "aight."</p>
<p>I'm fascinated by reality television—fascinated by it. I don't watch all of it by any means and there are certain shows where I'm like "I can't imagine why someone watches it," but they can't imagine why I watch what I watch.&nbsp; So it's sort of like, let's all be friends and just continue on.&nbsp; But what I'm really fascinated about in reality television is that it is self-conscious. You watch people trying to become some version of themselves for mass consumption and I can't get enough of that, because what's really amazing is that they understand the archetype so well and they fail so miserably at doing it.&nbsp; [<em>laughs</em>]. People go onto this national stage and are like, "Okay, I'm going to be the sassy one," and then they're really surprised because they go on the Internet and they're the bitchy one.&nbsp; And they're like, "Oh no! I'm supposed to be the sassy one that everybody loves, how did I become the bitchy one?" That kind of identity invention never ceases to amaze me.</p>
<p>SARAH: That's our show. If you like pulp, you're in luck, because the current issue of our magazine is all about pulp. Check it out on newsstands now—the issue is packed with writing about nordic noir, teenage vampires, and beloved science fiction paperbacks. It's a great read, go pick it up, then tune back in to Popaganda in two weeks for our next show, "Words We Hate."&nbsp;</p>
<p>Our jingle is by Mucks and Owen Wuerker &nbsp;Our producer is Sarah Molner at Pagatim studios in Portland and intern Hannah Svon Forman helped put this show together. Our fabulous sponsor, She Bop, and you can read feminist responses to pop culture every day at bitchmedia.org.</p>
</blockquote>
http://bitchmagazine.org/post/popaganda-episode-pulp-featuring-chelsea-cain-and-laura-lippman#commentsbookschelsea cainhorrorLaura LippmanlesbianpregnancypulpFeminist PodcastWed, 17 Apr 2013 21:26:58 +0000Sarah Mirk22270 at http://bitchmagazine.orgNew PSAs Treat Pregnant Women's Bodies Like Public Propertyhttp://bitchmagazine.org/post/new-psas-treat-pregnant-womens-bodies-like-public-property
<p class="Body"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8249/8643847502_d009f5f1ca_o.jpg" alt="" width="375" height="250" /></p>
<p class="Body">We as a nation just can't seem to trust women to make their own choices, especially when their reproductive organs are involved.</p>
<p class="Body">It's not earth-shattering to point out a good deal of language tossed around by our nation's lawmakers, major media presences and religious institutions, is detrimental to the agency of women.&nbsp; The <a href="/post/why-north-dakotas-abortion-ban-is-a-win-for-right-wingers—even-if-they-lose" target="_blank">wave of laws restricting abortion rights in 49 states</a> often portray the woman as <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2011/02/miscarriage-death-penalty-georgia" target="_blank">nothing more than a vessel for a fetus</a> from the point of conception&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p class="Body">But recently, rhetoric has taken the issue even further. Current public education campaigns imply that we have a civic duty to tell women when they should get pregnant and reinforce the idea that pregnant women's bodies are public property.</p>
<p class="Body">Pregnant women have long dealt with strangers examining their every habit—<a href="http://www.bostonmagazine.com/2012/11/drinking-alcohol-while-pregnant/" target="_blank">especially their drinking</a>.&nbsp;Enforcement of <a href="http://feministing.com/2013/01/17/new-report-shows-how-the-principle-of-personhood-is-already-criminalizing-pregnancy-in-the-us/" target="_blank">criminal punishments against pregnant women</a> who used drugs while pregnant or want to have vaginal births despite the advice of doctors further contribute to the troubling idea that people other than the pregnant woman should be able to tell her what to do with her body. &nbsp;</p>
<p class="Body">Into this environment comes the the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy's report <a href="http://twentysomethingmarriage.org" target="_blank">"Knot Yet: The Benefits and Costs of Delayed Marriage in America."</a>&nbsp;The report declares there is a "success sequence" to life. This sequence involves achieving a certain level of education, getting a job, getting married, then having children, in that order. Backed up by extensive data and painting itself as representing the best interest of society as a whole, there is something fundamentally off in what this report suggests.</p>
<p class="Body">First, there's the idea that there is a singular prescription for success—one that involves a straight shot from high school graduation to children and a white picket fence.</p>
<p class="Body">The report tells men and women what age is the most "successful" to have children. This goes beyond mere statistical observation— it's a point that tells women when it is appropriate to do what with their bodies. The report isn't just telling women what to do to keep healthy once they're pregnant, it's telling them how to live their lives. &nbsp;</p>
<p class="Body">If we don't challenge authoritative suggestions like those presented in the study, which intends to be helpful and well-meaning, they slip through the cracks. They snowball into larger, scarier issues. Like a public ad campaign telling single mothers they're doomed.</p>
<p class="Body">Recently, <a href="http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2013/03/06/its-not-just-those-awful-ads-in-nyc-teen-moms-are-bullied-every-day/" target="_blank">New York City began running controversial ads</a> targeted at young women with the aim of discouraging teen pregnancy. One ad portrays a young child saying: "Honestly Mom...chances are he won't stay with you. What happens to me?" This ad, likely intended to spark a strong reaction, deserves its bad rap for several reasons.</p>
<p class="Body">For one, the woman's agency—her free will as a thinking person rather than an object to be acted upon—is entirely absent in this scenario. The hypothetical mother is impregnated and then left high and dry with no say in the matter but all the responsibility of cleaning up the mess.</p>
<p class="Body">The mother needs the mayor's office to step in and hand her back her free will. Statistics about teen pregnancy aside, it helps no one to shock and shame young women by telling them they are—and always will be—the victims and objects of men.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="Body">To borrow a term, the real "success sequence" to challenging gender inequality begins with calling out language that diminishes a woman's perceived ability to make her own smart decisions.</p>
<p class="Body">If we want to implement real change with regard to women's perceived peoplehood, we have to learn to stop telling women, in even the most subtle and unconscious ways, what to do with their bodies.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="Body">&nbsp;</p>
<p class="Body"><em>Photo of Washington DC's teen mom ad campaign via <a href="http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2013/03/06/its-not-just-those-awful-ads-in-nyc-teen-moms-are-bullied-every-day/" target="_blank">RH Reality Check</a>.</em></p>
http://bitchmagazine.org/post/new-psas-treat-pregnant-womens-bodies-like-public-property#commentsabortionpregnancyreproductive rightsteen pregnancyMediaFri, 12 Apr 2013 19:07:39 +0000Alissa Fleck22203 at http://bitchmagazine.org